Architecture

Next

8th International Architecture Exhibition

Director: Deyan SUDJIC

8th September– 3rd November 2002

Site: Arsenale e Giardini

Director appointed by President: Paolo Baratta

What will architecture be like in the future? This is the question the 8th International Architecture Exhibition, directed by Deyan Sudjic and titled Next, tried to answer. The temporal displacement between ideation/designing of a building, and its effective realization, often makes the result look a little obsolete. Sudjic is sure that today, thanks to sketches, models and new technologies, it is possible for us to foresee the architecture of the nearest future, with a limited margin of error. The exhibitions therefore aimed at creating in architects’ studios, in their physical models and in the analyzed materials, the traces and the elements for future projects. At the same time, it is also possible to select the geographical areas that will host the most innovative projects in the future, even though there is nothing significant yet: Sudjic imagined a possible future scenario for China, where the most interesting creations could be realized.

One of the key features of this Architecture Biennale is the attention paid to the materials: all the designers involved were invited to display not only drawings and plastic models, but also concrete materials such as bricks, glass, metal, in order to physically prove the impact they can have on architectural space.

Through its different sections, Next was intended to suggest an enquiry on the most widespread constructive types: Housing, Museums, Communication, Education, Towers, Work, Shopping, Performance, Church and State, Masterplans, Italy.

To such section, where designs from the world’s major architects were displayed, an exhibition called City of Towers, is added, an independent section realized in collaboration with Alessi: some of today’s most renowned architects were asked to present the 1:100 model of a skyscraper. One year after the Twin Towers bombing in New York, this exhibition highlighted a new interest for vertical expansion and for skyscrapers, which ultimately can reaffirm the modernity of nowadays cities. The London Swiss RA headquarters by Norman Foster and the Torre Agbar in Barcelona by Jean Nouvel, both exhibited, are just some recent significant examples of skyscraper design.

At the Giardini, the Italian section at the Padiglione Italia was centered on a series of projects, some of which realized by foreign architects too, aiming at requalifying some Italian areas, such as the intervention on the San Michele cemetery in Venice by David Chipperfield. The USA Pavilion hosted a selection of shoots of September 11th, as well as suggestions for the restoration and the reconstruction of Ground Zero.

Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement: Toyo Ito

Golden Lion for best project of the International Exhibition: Ibere Camargo Foundation di Porto Alegre (Brazil) designed by Alvaro Siza Vieira